Enormous, Humongous $40.8B September Trade Deficit

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday that the September goods and services trade deficit was an enormous, humongous $40.8 billion. This is down 15 percent from August’s enormous, humongous $40.8 (revised) billion trade deficit, (which was up 15.6 percent from July’s enormous, humongous trade deficit.)

AP reports, “Economists are looking for the deficit to widen in the coming months as a weak global economy and strong dollar puts pressure on exports. … The U.S. deficit with China is running 8.4 percent higher than a year ago, on track to set another in a string of annual records.”

Also, the full effect of China’s currency devaluation and the stronger U.S. dollar is yet to hit.

The monthly U.S. goods deficit with China was an enormous, humongous $30.7 billion. In a single month.

The U.S. goods deficit with Japan was $5.5 billion which doesn’t seem all that enormous and humongous next to our trade deficit with China, but is still enormous and humongous.

The U.S. goods deficit with South Korea was $1.8 billion which is really enormous and humongous when you consider that the Korean-U.S. free trade deal was sold as a way to increase our exports and create jobs.

The trade deficit measures the amount of jobs, factories, manufacturing ecosystems and general wealth drained from our economy by our trade policies.

About Dave Johnson

Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. He was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped co-found a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.